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robert shrimsley

@robertshrimsley

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Chief UK political commentator and executive editor, FT.

UK
Joined January 2009
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Top PMQs tip for Boris: if Keir Starmer says government guidance said something, best to work on the assumption that it did
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
No punches pulled
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
When will people get this point. People like Hopkins want you to tweet your fury at her words. She functions in an outrage economy and your anger is her income. Ignore her and she goes out of business.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
The one thing I'm struck by is how few Tory MPs mention what they think is best for the country. They talk almost entirely in terms of what is right for their party
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
The British public has to stop it with the gotcha questions. It has behaved disgracefully at these press briefings. When this is over there will be a reckoning for the British public.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Chris Bryant speech being heard in dead silence. It is quietly brutal and exposes the shamelessness of what is going on. Many Tories who do as they are told today, will know this.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Wonder what LBC discovered about Nigel Farage that it didn't know before.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
The greatest tragedy is that all those people who really needed a Labour government were abandoned and betrayed by cultists who cared much more about indulging their own ideological projects than about the normal people who needed them to be electable
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Just wish @RoryStewartUK would @get off the fence on this
Tweet media one
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Every time I hear someone in Government saying, we need the freedom from state aid rules so ministers handing out subsidies can decide which start-ups might become world-beating tech companies, I just think - How's that track and trace app coming.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
A city should not be celebrating slavery. Whatever the mores of Colston's time, this should be obvious now. Bristol should have removed it years ago. Wish this had been a legal civic decision but can't say I'm sorry it's gone.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
This is what happens when you spend a month forgetting there is any world beyond conservative party members.
@Haggis_UK
Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺
2 years
Julia Hartley-Brewer - President Macron, friend or foe? Liz Truss - "The jury is out" 🤦
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
Seems like the Brexit party's whole strategy now is just to seek controversy so they stay in the news. they are the piers morgan of politics and they want you to react
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Every Tory MP reading about their second job in todays press knows they have Boris Johnson's Paterson plan, to thank for the renewed scrutiny.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 months
Time for a quick thread on David Cameron’s foreign policy achievements. 1/1
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Three points on Rwanda policy. 1) Last year Australia spent £461m to process 239 asylum seekers offshore 2) The UK is spending £120m 3) 600 people crossed the Channel on Wednesday So either this is a stunt, to deter and ease political pressure or a lot more money will be needed
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
The Prime Minister has announced her planned resignation. She has not spoken to the country; she has not told parliament; she has told a closed meeting of Tory MPs and released a text. May in a nutshell
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
The Gordon Brown interview not only highlights his qualities but also the loss of all the experienced Tories pushed out of the party who might have been useful. This really is an ingenue cabinet
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Before you opt for conspiracy, it's always best to eliminate incompetence
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
8 months
I would love to see a venn diagram of those who went after Huw Edwards and those demanding "due process" for Russell Brand
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
This special place in hell - is it inside or outside the customs union?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
Priti Patel joins the cabinet ministers singling out north london liberals for attack. But what about the poor old south London liberals, what have they done to deserve the cold shoulder.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Govt attitute to exam results v similar to the way it saw the virus coming but did not move quickly. In March it watched Italy and did not react. This time it saw Scotland's exam example and again froze in the headlights.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Johnson now in the worst possible place. Burned up good will and political capital to save Cummings. Govt seriously damaged by this. But he'll be humiliated if he lets him go now and it's far too late to get credit for doing so. Rock & a hard place
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
I get why people are saying the UK looks ridiculous obsessing over parties in the middle of issues like Ukraine. BUT actually I like the look of a country whose leaders get into trouble if they don't observe the laws they impose on others. And the lockdown laws were not minor
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Breaking - Nigel Farage says Boris has betrayed Brexit. (not really but I like to be ahead of the curve)
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 years
Tory MP on May in SunTimes: "The moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted. She'll be dead soon". What kind of person talks like this?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Small note to all those expecting wild change in policy. The next leader of the conservative party is going to be a conservative.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Thinking of the 100k. Reminded of lines I love from Terry Pratchett. So much wisdom inside the whimsy.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
This is pretty dishonest. The court actually said goods from West Bank Israeli settlements should indicate this rather than simply say Made in Israel. Your misuse of antisemitism and holocaust references shames you and devalues those fighting real antisemitism in Europe.
@AndrewPollackFL
Andrew Pollack
5 years
The European Union’s top court has issued a mandate to label Jewish goods. This is the equivalent of putting a yellow star on every Jewish-made product. Anti-semitism has no place in the world and the E.U. should be ashamed!
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Those demanding the tearing down of Gladstone, Peel & Churchill are shooting their own campaign in the foot & rallying even sympathisers to the other side. It will build a backlash and vindicate those who depict you as a cultural Taliban. Absolutism is the true enemy of progress
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 months
V good idea from @DanNeidle Any “letter before action” threatening libel action could be required to be accompanied by a “statement of truth”. The claimant would have to say, under threat of perjury, that the statements in the letter are correct.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Change to the ER post boxes may not be as rapid as imagined. Spotted this one round the corner from my house
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
This seems symptomatic of what is wrong with our politics. We all know he doesn't believe this and that privately he's probably spitting tacks , but hey the game is the game
@MattHancock
Matt Hancock
4 years
I know how ill coronavirus makes you. It was entirely right for Dom Cummings to find childcare for his toddler, when both he and his wife were getting ill.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Just to remind people, the Attorney General is the government's lawyer. She doesn't defend the law; she defends the government.
@SuellaBraverman
Suella Braverman MP
4 years
Protecting one’s family is what any good parent does. The @10DowningStreet statement clarifies the situation and it is wholly inappropriate to politicise it.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
Genius line about May and Corbyn from @jessphillips in Times interview
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Neil Oliver: I don't know what's happening in Ukraine. I don't understand it either. But here are my opinions anyway.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
He's right. The media was far too slow to lock down the country. They left NHS staff without protective equipment and badly let down care home residents.
@RupertLowe10
Rupert Lowe
4 years
Most of the media has acted disgracefully during this crisis. The public want a calm, measured analysis. People are sick of ‘gotcha’ journalism in search of embarrassing politicians. The blame game needs to wait!
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
The opposition parties need to refuse to participate in the new committee - to let it be seen as a committee of Tory MPs sitting in judgement on themselves
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
1 year
What is depressing about this is that an agriculture secretary thought a trade deal sold out UK farmers but preferred to stay in his job and defend it anyway
@adampayne26
Adam Payne
1 year
Here's that extraordinary Eustice admission that the post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, signed when he was environment secretary, "is not actually a very good deal for the UK." He says DIT - led at the time by Truss - "gave away far too much for far too little in return".
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Panic among Tories as ministries report supplies of excuses running low:
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
This is the logical end point of the fantasy economics of the Brexit ideology. Brexit is the comorbidity in the UK economy.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 months
So basically an SNP day designed to expose Labour divisions and undermine Starmer ended up with a Labour amendment securing the first Commons call for a ceasefire on Gaza. No wonder SNP and Tories furious. Starmer really is a lucky general.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
this is so great - is there anything not to like about this man?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
This is a genuinely shocking moment. Tories could have opted to cut Paterson's penalty, which would have been bad enough. Instead they have concluded that an independent system which finds against their chum is too independent
@Laura_K_Hughes
Laura Hughes
3 years
Tory whips have imposed a three-line whip on the Leadsom amendment, which has been selected for vote this afternoon.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 months
Just thinking that the sad focus on Alistair Darling today - his intelligence, integrity and decency - will remind people how far British politics has fallen in the last decade
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
No question that the Home Office is institutionally flawed but the Conservatives have been in power for 12 years, this leader for nearly three. The last Perm Sec at Home Office was ousted 2 years ago. At what point do Tories take responsibility for what happens on their watch?
Tweet media one
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
I do think Boris hasn't got enough credit for flying back from the Caribbean holiday he was taking while parliament was sitting to come and save the conservative party. And he flew economy. Some people just don't appreciate the public service ethos than runs deep in our leaders,
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
You have to ask. Is Darren Grimes a double agent for the liberal metropolitan elite?
@Tony_Diver
Tony Diver
4 years
David Starkey has now lost: - Two university jobs - His book deal - Board position at @MaryRoseMuseum He stands to also lose: - His honours (per @thetimes ) - Two honorary degrees If this was meant to be a feisty battle in the marketplace of ideas, he's been absolutely pummelled
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Stay alert: for any sudden change in the guidelines.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
10 years is more than many first offenders will get for rape.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Boris Johnson’s newfound policy concern about obesity is a mark of his solipsism. It’s only a problem if it’s a problem for him
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
The astonishing thing about the Tories/BBC/flags row is the extent to which those mocking don't understand just how totally they are losing this argument.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
There was no way PM was going to let this force him to sack Patel, but by making a mockery of the entire process, he's made it a bigger story than it would have been had he accepted the report, given her a reprimand and made her apologise more fully.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
BREAKING - Brexit deal is done. Or not. But nearly. Press conference tonight. Or tomorrow. Really early. Or later. Sources say it is totally in the bag, but sources caution it could still slip through our fingers at the last minute
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
In order to move the story on I am now setting out some new easing of lockdown. This is based entirely on the science of spin
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
This from @stephenkb - is the key point on this week's antisemitism row. It's not that either RLB or Maxine Peake are antisemites; it is that they don't understand this issue and don't have the antennae for this particular trope that they have for many others.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Pictures can be deceptive but there do appear to be a fair few Nazi salutes from those assembling to defend Churchill. Somehow don't think its down to the famous English sense of irony.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
I can't help thinking that admitting you are breaking the law "in a specific and limited way" might not help your case under legal challenge
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Today I am being lambasted by Boris Johnson's defenders for being too mean to him, and his opponents for being too kind. This must be what it is like working for the BBC.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
Just been reminded of Edward Carson's 1921 line: "What a fool I was! I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into Power".
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
9 months
Wow. Wonder if Tories and their media supporters have thought through the consequences of encouraging law-breaking in protest against policies you dislike
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
Still the best speech I’ve seen in my time watching British politics
@labour_history
Tides of History
5 years
As Derek Hatton returns to the Labour Party, here is Neil Kinnock taking on the Militant Tendency in Bournemouth, 1985 "I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises..."
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
I understand why it is happening but I hate the way everyone keeps stressing the underlying conditions in coronavirus deaths as if somehow that means they don’t mater
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Just one observation on Jackie Weaver. If more journalists had ever spent any time covering parish councils (them were the days) they would be a lot less surprised at the simmering hatred, standing on ceremony and obsession with standing orders.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
You don't have to support Dominic Cummings to know the scenes outside his house are unnecessary and intolerable - with or without social distancing
@pressgazette
Press Gazette
4 years
Journalists and social distancing: Time to tackle hypocrisy of media scrums #comment via @DomPonsford
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 months
"I've got a new Foreign Secretary, but if you'd like the Home Office . . ."
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
If I were an Irish nationalist, I would pray every night for the continued health of the DUP. Since 2016 They've played a blinder for reunification
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Can’t begin to comprehend the courage needed to do this
@carlbildt
Carl Bildt
3 years
And then @navalny was arrested at passport control. He said farewell to his wife before being taken away. I guess he is accused of having survived the authorities attempt to kill him.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Question for the day: If you believe that the BBC - or say the judiciary - can suffer from systemic and structural liberal bias, why is it so hard to believe that other institutions can be infected with systemic and structural racism.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 months
Interesting Regev cites that Rabin, was shot for his efforts to make peace with Palestinians, but seems to forget that he was shot by a right-wing Israeli and that one of those extremists who called for his death is now in the Israeli cabinet
@PiersUncensored
Piers Morgan Uncensored
5 months
"Why should they be prohibited from having exactly the same rights as the state of Israel?" Piers Morgan questions senior advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Reghev, after the Israeli ambassador said that a two-state solution is not possible. @piersmorgan | @MarkRegev | #pmu
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 years
My hunch now is that if Corbyn committed Labour to a second ref as its primary position, that the peoples vote would quite quickly command a majority in the Commons.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 years
They have 'no sense of English irony despite having lived here all their lives' - the words of a man who has apparently fought racism his whole life.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
Our grocery delivery has substituted our christmas pudding for jam tarts (jam tarts!) and now i really do feel like christmas has been cancelled
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
The UK is going to need to rethink some of its post Brexit myths and visions. Global Britain has got more local again. Ukraine marks an end to Brexit illusions
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 years
We are all viewing Trump trade statement as a Brexit intervention. But the bigger picture here is Trump's desire to weaken the EU as a trading block. That's why he told Macron to leave and why he wants UK to do so. This is not an idle aside, it is US trade strategy.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
8 years
This is literally the best story ever: Microsoft's AI twitter bot turned racist after 15 hours on twitter
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Genuinely terrifying to see the total equanimity with which Trump’s henchmen are happy to spray out they know are false and inflammatory claims to try to cling onto power. Even if it comes to nothing this time a Rubicon has been crossed
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
People need to keep cool. This is not a Trump moment. Johnson is breaking no rules by trying to tough it out (and can argue he recently survived a confidence vote). He is daring his cowardly party to pull the trigger. When they do, he'll go.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 months
The editor of the Jewish Chronicle, supposedly the voice of Anglo-Jewry, should be better than someone glorifying in death which he must know cannot only be Hamas fighters. This is not a soccer match.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
John Cleese has basically become the exact person he used to laugh at - I wonder if that fate awaits us all
@JohnCleese
John Cleese
5 years
Some years ago I opined that London was not really an English city any more Since then, virtually all my friends from abroad have confirmed my observation So there must be some truth in it... I note also that London was the UK city that voted most strongly to remain in the EU
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
6 months
Matt, I am a British Jew and I have been upset by some scenes in recent weeks. Israel divides our communities. But Islamophobia is real and dangerous and leaders should care about it. And btw too many of those who are anti-Muslim can find some hate in their heart for Jews too.
@GoodwinMJ
Matt Goodwin
6 months
Imagine you're a British Jew. You've just witnessed the worst atrocities against Jews since World War Two. And then a wave of anti-Semitic & pro-Hamas chants on Britain's streets. And now your national leaders fall over themselves to warn the country about "Islamophobia".
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 months
Whatever position you take on Gaza it seems hard to reconcile the official Labour position that Kate Osamor was beyond the pale but an apology is good enough for the Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
9 months
It seems a measure of how much trouble America is in that people who think Trump is guilty argue it is too risky to prosecute him. How far gone are you when sane people argue it is safer not to enforce the law?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
There are three camps on this: those who already hate Cummings and will never accept any defence; those who love him and will defend regardless; and the third group which will decide on the issue itself very few of whom seem to be on twitter.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Striking how much time Boris Johnson has spent in southern Tory seats in recent days. Either he thinks the red wall targets are in the bag or he is more worried about losses in remainer seats than he has been letting on.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
7 years
It's almost as if Theresa May looked at Hillary's campaign and said: "Let's do that"
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
8 years
Dont worry, after Brexit we'll have £350m to spend on new players. #engice
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Does this mean Brexit isn't done then?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
. @suzanne_moore is a national treasure. Her views are always worth reading and those trying to silence her are proving her point. That is all.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
this is unarguable
@OwenJones84
Owen Jones
5 years
A thought experiment. Imagine a left-wing MP called for Parliament to be prorogued to force through an ultra radical agenda for which Labour had no majority. Newspaper front pages would scream about a Corbynite authoritarian plot to stage a coup d'etat to destroy democracy.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
Really enjoyed my lunch with the FT @DavidLammy - a thoughtful man who is hopefully on his way back to the Labour front line
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
9 months
The peerless @pmdfoster has written a book coldly critiquing all that has gone wrong with Brexit. Dan Hannan really doesn't think you should read it What Went Wrong With Brexit by Peter Foster: myopic and drab
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
If only all the people who "don't care" about the Duke of Edinburgh's death didn't care enough not to tweet.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
4 years
The Telegraph lets the healing begin
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
I love the idea of the police suddenly giving damning evidence to Sue Gray. "While proceeding along the the main corridor I noticed a criminal offence which I've only just got round to mentioning"
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
5 years
God this is abysmal - is it too late to keep Theresa May?
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
3 years
The more I think about the government answer on 24 hours vaccination centres - "there's no demand for it" the sillier it sounds. Hello madam we have a drug that will save your life. Well, ok but only between 8am and 8pm. But your appointment is 11pm. Oh no love I'll leave it then
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
29 days
🔥🔥from Nick Boles over Rayner
@richardhorton1
richard horton
29 days
Nick Boles sums it up perfectly.
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@robertshrimsley
robert shrimsley
2 years
Two pieces of advice for Rishi. Hesitation is fatal (se David Miliband). He who wields the dagger never wears the crown (Heseltine). Hope this helps.
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